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Study Shows Marijuana Prevents Seizures in Epileptics

Seizure”, a journal produced by the British Epilepsy Association ,indicates that one of the active ingredients in marijuana, cannabidiol, significantly reduces seizure risk in epileptics.

There is increasing evidence that among the many diseases helped by medicinal marijuana is epilepsy. Historically, epilepsy has been very difficult to treat. Part of the problem is that sixty percent of suffers don’t know the cause. Unless there was some obvious head trauma, the cause of epilepsy goes undiagnosed. Currently treatment options are limited. There are a handful of drugs that help prevent the seizures associated with epilepsy. These include: Tegretol, Dilantin, Klonopin, Mysoline and Zarontin. Unfortunately, all of these drugs come with horrible side effects. Potential for conditions such as anemia, headaches, hair loss, depression, psychosis, and impotence cause many suffers to reject pharmaceutical treatment for their illness. Many users of these drugs report a negative lifestyle change compared to untreated epilepsy. Some of them even had to use drug detoxes to save themselves from drug poisoning The most common non-pharmaceutical treatment is known as the Ketogenic Diet. The Ketogenic Diet is a treatment that was popular throughout the early twentieth century, and is making a come back. The diet is similar to Atkins in that it is high fat, low carbohydrates. This causes the body to go into starvation mode which seems to reduce the amount of seizures. For obvious reasons starving epileptic children is not ideal but is experiencing resurgence due to the side effects of epileptic drugs. That is why new evidence that marijuana can be as effective as pharmaceuticals, without the side effects is so exciting. The two main compounds that researchers have identified are Cannabidiol and GWP42006. These two compounds that are found in marijuana have been proven to help epilepsy in animals. Unfortunately, human testing of this treatment could take as much as three years to receive government approval. A recent study has shown that 21% of epilepsy suffers have taken it upon themselves to treat their symptoms with marijuana. Almost all will attest to its beneficial properties. The government and the drug war turn sick people looking for treatment into criminals. It is unconscionable and inhuman. Dr. Ben Whelley lead the research team studying marijuana’s effects on epileptic animals. He believes that the reason for government denial of medical marijuana is caused by -a stigma associated with cannabis that comes our from the 60s and 70s associated with recreational use, so people have tended not to look at its medical benefits.-

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